Pastor Greg Laurie on biggest challenge for Christians today
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Quarantine Routine is a regular feature that asks political power brokers and public figures how their daily lives have changed – and how they're still doing their jobs – during the coronavirus crisis.
Christian pastor and author Greg Laurie isn't letting something like the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) get in his way of keeping the faith.
Laurie is the senior pastor of several congregations, including Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., and Harvest at Kumulani in Kapalua, Hawaii.
He described how his daily routine has changed and how he is continuing his ministry, during an interview with Fox News on Thursday.
Fox News: How has your daily routine changed since social distancing measures began?
Laurie: "[It's changed] a lot. I was traveling. I'm not doing any travel right now. I was speaking at our church on a given Sunday, three times. Then I would speak mid-week at our church as well. I'm not doing any of that now.
We're still busy because we're going and filming it now, and sending it out via our website, Harvest.org, for our service for the weekends that we call Harvest at Home. We're also producing other content for people to watch if they come to our website during the week. So they have an alternative to Joe Exotic -- so they have something besides Netflix or Amazon Prime, etc.
But of course, I'm not out and about as I was before. Can't go out and get my coffee -- not going out to restaurants. So, basically the same changes that everyone else is experiencing.
Fox News: What are the biggest challenges in doing your job during this crisis?
Laurie: I want to bring Christ into the crisis. I want to help people understand that God is there for them. There's this story in the gospels when the disciples were on their boat in the sea of Galilee and a great storm came and they began to despair of life -- and who comes walking toward them on the water, but it's Jesus.
Interesting detail -- in one of the gospels, He acted as though He would keep walking until they stopped Him and said, 'No Lord come on board,' and then He did. And everything changes, when Jesus is on board. Right? So we have a choice. We can say, 'I'm going to work this out and I'll figure it out' or I can say to the Lord, 'Come into this crisis and help me.' I'm really encouraging people to turn toward God at this time.
Never trade what you do know, for what you don't know. What don't you know? Okay, you don't know why this is happening. We don't know why God has allowed this. What do we know? We know that God loves us, we know that God's in control of our lives as his followers, and we know that Romans 8:28 is still in the Bible last time I checked. And Romans 8:28 says: For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose. So I feel my calling, my job right now if you will, is to bring assurance to people that God's in control and God can intervene in their lives. I want to point them to the Lord. And I want to encourage people to help one another.
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Fox News: What do you miss the most about how you did your job before this began?
Laurie: I miss people. I miss people. I miss talking to people, praying with people, encouraging people. Hanging out with them -- I mean, that's what we do every day.
It's funny, I had a dream the other day where I was speaking, and it suddenly occurred to me in my dream that there were people there. I said, hey wait, there's people here. This is the first time I've spoken to an actual crowd of people for a long time. The funny thing in my dream, they weren't responding. Basically, they weren't laughing at my dumb jokes. I said, 'Now people, I know we haven't met for a while but you've got to at least give me a courtesy laugh and an amen here and there.'
I do miss interacting with people. I miss the freedom to just go out and do what I want to do, too. Get a cup of coffee, go sit in a restaurant and have a bite to eat. I miss a lot of those things and I hope we can do those sooner rather than later.
Fox News: What surprised you most about how life has changed?
Laurie: I've been surprised by how good some things have been, actually. I was just saying this to my wife the other day -- we can't go to a restaurant. We can't go to [the] store. We can't go and do all the things that we would have done before, but we can go take a walk. And we can be in nature. In some places, you can walk near the water. That's kind of a good thing. Actually being out in about in nature is very good for your thinking and calming you down and so forth.
I see people talking to each other more than they were before. I know I've talked to more of my neighbors than I ever have before. I see people thinking about one another, helping one another. I think these are some good things that have come out of this. Families sitting down and having a meal together -- we would be out so much and eating food on the run. And now we sit down at the table. We have time together as a family. So these are the good things, okay?
But some of the bad things are the rise of domestic violence, the rise of alcohol sales. The rise of people calling mental health hotlines. 850 percent increase ... So this is why I'm telling people to turn to God. Social distancing does not mean we have to have social isolation. We can still communicate and I hope that we're all doing that. Talking to each other on the phone. Texting one another, calling people through Skype or Zoom ... and certainly attending church online.
Over a million people watched us last weekend and I've seen a lot of people make commitments to follow Jesus Christ. So those are some good things in the midst of the bad things.
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Fox News: Are you concerned the virus could normalize the practice of not going to church in person?
Laurie: Of course. I think most pastors would feel that way. We love to have people in our churches. And there's nothing like meeting together with fellow believers and worshiping together.
The Bible says the Lord inhabits the praises of his people. Hearing the word of God together, serving one another, helping one another -- I don't know what the landscape is going to look like when we're able to meet together as a congregation. I'm sure we will have to put in place social distancing protocols and such. It's going to be very interesting to see. But a part of me thinks we may see a surge of attendance because people realize that maybe they've taken the church for granted. And they want to be back in the church again.
So we'll try to provide the best ministry we can, in person, in our church facilities. ... We'll do what we can to minister to people in person but we'll continue our online ministry because frankly since COVID-19 hit, we've had so many people start joining us ... from all around the world. So it's a whole new growing, burgeoning congregation that we'll continue to minster.
But I do hope that people will not take church attendance out of their normal lifestyle because I think it's a very important thing for a believer.
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